Media Schemas, Perceived Effects, and Person Perceptions

Media schemas about the power of the media are widely thought to influence perceived media effects and third-person perception, but only one study has shown this, and it did not consider desirable messages. The current research finds focus group evidence for the existence of additional media schemas relevant to estimating effects of pro-social messages, then examines the relationships between media schemas, perceived media effects of desirable and undesirable messages on self and others, and first-, second-, and third-person perceptions. Results indicate that some media schemas can be applied to perceived media effects of self and others, although not exclusively to desirable or undesirable messages. There was no evidence that these schemas are related to first- or third-person perception, but they seem to be better suited to predict the mutual perceived effects of second-person perception.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Topic-Relevant Reference Groups and Dimensions of Distance: Political Advertising and First- and Third-Person Effects

This article argues for using topic-relevant reference groups in examining first and third-person effects. It also proposes using topic-relevant dimensions of distance to assess relationships not only between self and target groups but also relationships both have with communicators. The study showed 2000 presidential primary ads from Al Gore and George W. Bush to a combined sample of student and nonstudent partisans (N = 140). Participants perceived greater effects on the out-group and on the general public then on themselves for ads from the out-group candidate. A third-person effect was also observed for ads from the in-group candidate in self-in-group and self-public comparisons. The only first-person effect was found for the self-out-group comparison of responses to the in-group candidate ads. Self-candidate political distance, an analogue of message desirability, was negatively related to perceived effects on self and target groups, whereas self-group and group-candidate distance measures showed only sporadic relationships to perceived effects.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Motivated Misperception? Party, Education, Partisan News, and Belief in “Death Panels”

This study drew on the literature in motivated reasoning and 2009 Pew survey data to examine the roles of partisanship, education, news exposure, and their interactions in the misperception that health care reform would create “death panels.” Radio news exposure encouraged the misperception only among Republicans, while newspaper exposure discouraged it, especially among non-Republicans. But rather than polarize perceptions along partisan lines as predicted, Fox News exposure contributed to misperception mainstreaming. Finally, this study identified a complex role for education in both inhibiting misperceptions (as a main effect) and promoting them (as an interaction with Fox News exposure).Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Rethinking the Target Corollary: The Effects of Social Distance, Perceived Exposure, and Perceived Predispositions on First-Person and Third-Person Perceptions

This study examines the effects of social distance, perceived exposure, and perceived predispositions on perceived media effects for desirable and undesirable health messages. It finds support for the effect social distance as traditionally measured; that is, groups that are more socially distant from the self, like the public, are perceived to be more affected by cigarette ads than close groups, such as friends. However, individual measures of respondents' social distance from any given comparison group generally are unrelated to perceived effects on the group. The influence of a group's perceived exposure on perceived message effects is confirmed for cigarette ads but not for desirable messages. Perceived attitudes of comparison groups toward message-relevant behaviors emerge as a factor that deserves inclusion in models of perceived effects.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Issue Salience and Decision-Making: Applying the Heuristic-Systematic Processing Model to Political Communication

This study examines the role that issue salience can play in adapting the heuristic-systematic processing model (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993) to political communication. It surveyed 288 undergraduates about issues in an upcoming gubernatorial election that was eight months away. Issue salience was positively related to perceived knowledge, desired knowledge, and sufficiency gap, which expresses a sense of needing to know more than one does in order to meet a processing goal. Salience for some issues also was positively related with more in-depth active systematic information processing, although the opposite was true for the abortion issue. Sufficiency gap was expected to related positively to systematic processing; instead, it related negatively with avoidance of information and with passive heuristic processing. It may well be that it was too early in the election during this survey for sufficiency gap to motivate systematic processing. Salience of the election as a whole (the issue environment) was strongly and positively related to systematic processing, as were (to a lesser extent) number of salient issues and strength of party affiliation; the latter finding ran contrary to expectations. Salience of issue environment also was a strong predictor of voting intention

Kids Voting and Political Knowledge: Narrowing Gaps, Informing Votes-super-

Kids Voting USA is a program designed to educate schoolchildren about the democratic process and foster their political socialization. This article set out to explore the consequences of the Kids Voting program for political knowledge, knowledge gaps, and attitude-behavior consistency. Copyright (c) 2004 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.